Six-Day Weekend (New Record, lol)

[JonathanLB]

Well basically it works like this...

I always have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with film screenings Wednesday nights. I didn't go last night because it was The Searchers, a film I just saw and reviewed thoroughly anyway. I spent my time instead watching Triumph of the Will and The 400 Blows (1959, Truffaut).

Well next week, from the start of the term, there has been a scheduled "no class" for my ENG 110 class, my intro to film studies class. Then last week I learned that my WR 201 class wouldn't meet that day either. So having two classes not meet on the same day is very coincidental.

Well then I got to thinking about it two days ago and thought, "You know, I honestly am bored most of the time in my philosophy 201 class, and although ethics, PHL 205, is interesting, I don't need to be there on Thursday really because the reading already emphasizes what I need to know, as always." So I can perhaps get someone else to turn in my daily homework in both classes on Thursday, but even if not, I don't care. In ethics, you only need to have one homework assignment done each week and you're fine (they are questions; you write an essay based on the question, one per week, so if you write two questions per week, you just have an extra one each week anyway...). In PHL 201, I have 1 point above 100% (bonus question on the midterm, lol), so I really don't care whatsoever. I could turn it in late even and say I was sick, no qualms about that either.

The film screening on Wednesday night was going to be Goddard's Breathless and Contempt, but now it's just Breathless. I decided to order it from Amazon.com, so now I can watch it at home, avoiding the need to be here Wednesday, either.

That means I will spend this four-day weekend at home, driving back Monday night for classes Tuesday as normal. Then after my 7-10 p.m. class on Tuesday night, I'll probably take a brief nap, then I will drive back to Portland and not return to college until six days later, Monday night again. So I'm taking a six-day weekend, or six-day break, in the middle of the term :D

Gotta love this schedule.

Oh here is my pages of reviews written in the last three weeks (I forget from before that):

34
37
48.5 (new record, all-time for reviews; previous was 44).

This last week I wrote 16 pages Sunday, 19 Wednesday, the 2nd and 3rd best days ever for me (1st was last term in the week I wrote 44 pages; it was 22.5 pages).

I have 10-15 pages of ethics writing to do on those dumb essays during my six-day weekend, so now I figure those essays will cut only into school time, not my time, allowing me to achieve my normal weekly output even despite the end of the term adding work.

Oh and by the way, those 48.5 pages came during a week when I also had my 12-page film horror (ENG 220) essay due, so I actually ended up writing somewhere around 60 pages, sort of (I kind of copied and pasted that 12-page essay from two reviews, or 70% of it, then I rewrote that 70% extensively, so it depends what you really want to consider as "writing" versus "editing," I guess).

Anyway, yeah, six-day weekend. I want to see what THAT'S like! :)

[CMJ]

Between gigs I sometimes have 7 day weekends. :p Heck I sometimes have them back to back. ;)

[JonathanLB]

Yeah you're lame, lol, j/k.

Yeah I get a fifteen-month self-imposed weekend when I am done here.

I'm trying to make it through college incredibly fast (given how far I fell behind last year...) so that I can take 15 months off between college and film school to pursue my film studies further.

I would very much like to have a nearly total understanding of major directors and film movements and genres by that point, so that I could not just say, "Oh yeah I know who Francois Truffaut is," but, "Yes I have seen the majority of his films." At least, I would like to get to that sort of level.

I need the time off between film school and college not just to do that, but also as something to look forward to so that I can relax a bit after how hard I work here.

I put in 35 hours a week for school, maybe just 30 sometimes, and 40 or more for reviews, basically no social contact, haha, so I have to have some light at the end of the tunnel so I can look forward to that freedom :)

When I'm finally done with tests and college and all this crap, wow that'll be nice. I don't understand anyone who yearns for returning to this. They must be crazy. I have lived my entire life in school and it's been a depressing existence, lol. I can't wait to get out and make a real difference.

[Sene Unty]

*Dreams of having back-to-back 7 day weekends*

[CMJ]

The reason I enjoyed college so much was not class(though some were indeed fun). I enjoyed the sporting events I went to, the friends I made, the dumb stuff we would do, etc...

That was at least half of my college experience.

[JonathanLB]

Well see half my college experience is work, and the other half is work too, only more fun work. ;)

My best friend's girlfriend read me like a book the other day, like three weeks ago, and I was like, "Damn I really am that simple," haha. It was kind of funny but somehow disturbing.......

She was like, "You should just have fun sometimes and not feel guilty about it," and I was like, "Wow that is exactly how I feel, I always feel guilty when I'm not working and I could be."

Blast my work ethic and ingrained habits. I want to remove the programming that makes me get A's in every class -- it is outdated and useless. It was only useful in high school, but through four years of that, I was brainwashed permanently and now don't understand or know how to do a mediocre job. It's against my philosophy and ideals anyway, but that's not the point, I still think that it would be nice if I could work less hard on school and re-use that time on film instead. I just have never managed to be able to do that. I am AMAZED at how some people can do poorly in school, and even how they can not care about it. I wish I could somehow know what that was like, but honestly it's habit, and it's not under my control. I can't say, "Oh I am going to DECIDE not to care about school or my grades anymore, I'll just go for C's." Nope, don't know how to do that, it's just like if someone throws a ball at my head and I see it coming, I'm going to duck or catch it, one of the two, I'm not going to let it hit me, lol.

Anyway my friends always work hard too, so that kills that idea. The first two weeks here, all I wanted to do was have some fun, just go out to some parties, whatever, and I hadn't even thought about my film studies as seriously as I do in the last 5 months now or whatever. But in those first two weeks, Ben said he didn't want to do anything, Bryan was busy with his own stuff, and I was alone as usual left to my own devices. I started popping in some DVDs, reviewing them, and that's when I decided to set a plan for myself that has lasted since then, otherwise I'd just be bored and I felt this would be a proper course of action for the long term anyway.

Bryan takes 18 credits, Ben took 19, both were always busy, we didn't ever and don't ever do anything useless or stupid, it's all business or school related. I know there are kids who just have fun most of their time here, but I don't know them, I'm not truly at heart one of them, so I can't exactly do that.

If I took 15 credits and that was it, just had fun on my free time, HOLY cow I would be stress-free and relaxed, haha. Well, that is, until I was 30 and working a desk job wishing I had worked harder earlier. That isn't going to be the case, however, because my version of "short term planning" means the next 3 months, not the next day. ;)

[JMK]

Going to school, skipping class, playing between 4 and 5 hours of hockey 5 days a week and then going out to party was what I liked most about college. I considered it a 3 year vacation.

[CMJ]

That's one way to go about it. I was not really a party guy(I'd always be one of the first to leave), but there is a balance between studies and fun time that can be met. I was never a guy who would study much. I was a competent student(better than the 'C' student you dereided) though I'd occasionally do poorly in classes, like Spanish(don't get me started).

I was really involved in campus life though. I met all kinds of school officials, etc.. I sat on several joint faculty/staff/student committee's, was an officer for 7 semesters in a campus organization, had a job, never missed a game if I could help it, and still was a 'B' student.

[JonathanLB]

I'd like to be a B student -- I have no use for better grades than that. It's hard to explain perhaps, but I just don't know how to do that. I either do something all the way, or I don't, so if I get a B in a class it's probably because I honestly couldn't do better under the circumstances, which either means somehow I gave up on a few key papers after I felt they were good enough, or maybe the teacher is a harsh grader, or whatever else.

Now a C student, that is pretty lousy, well at least at this state college. If you get C's, you gotta either be really stupid or really, really unmotivated. I mean I barely put any work into my Geo 101 class and I showed up a lousy 65% of the time but still got a 107%, the 2nd best grade in 295. That is where I begun to think that my classmates are morons, because I hate science, am not good at it, and Geo was easy. Anyone who missed getting an A in that class must be a retard or just totally never showed up whatsoever. He gave out 100 A's for crying out loud, lol.

[Admiral Lebron]

The only way I can make it through school is by doing extra-ciricular activities... otherwise I'd die.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I miss school :(

[JonathanLB]

Oh god, I will never miss this place. It is the worst time of my life for sure, but probably the most productive and the most influential, so I will look back on this, roll my eyes, wonder how I made it through, and thank myself for putting in the work because it will make anything possible.

School, though, SUCKS. I hate school. Worthless waste of time for stupid people too lazy to get the books themselves and do the research on their own without teachers telling them it.

I can learn at least 2-3 times, and up to 10 times as fast just studying material on my own rather than having to go to class to learn it. Especially at a lame public college, they really appeal to the lowest common denominator. They speak slowly enough and move slowly enough so that the DUMBEST people in the class will not be left behind, which makes the smartest people bored out of our minds.

I already knew I shouldn't be here at a state university with grades that are above about 99% of the kids here, but I do want to save money, I do enjoy being near home, and Oregon has no good universities whatsoever. Not IMO, anyway. They are all either small liberal piece of crap colleges or huge, underfunded colleges with lousy classes and majors. All of the good colleges near me are in California and that means going out of state, which means 5 times the money, or more (7 times the money in the case of LMU), and being far from home, costing me more airfare and making for a bigger hastle in general.

In short, school is the bane of my existence and has been since I was 5.

[JMK]

I didn't like high school. But college and graphics school was a whole different can of worms. I wish I could go back, but I'm too far in debt to go back now.

[CMJ]

Great Jonathan, now you're trashing all state institutions. I don't have the time or patience to slam that way of thinking.

At least not without starting a flame war. Posts rarely anger me, but that one sure as hell did.

[Diego Van Derveld]

Pssh...like I could care about Jon's opinion in this regard. UA, for my degree, is incredibly respected and accredited. I believe something like 5th in the nation for business majors (which, ironically enough, is where the money is. Go figure)

[JonathanLB]

What are you talking about CMJ? I think you are getting riled up over nothing at all. I never see you get mad, either, so you must have misinterpreted something.

I said I hate school, that doesn't have anything to do with state institutions. I went to private schools except for the last, umm, precisely 19 weeks. Before that, 12 years and 1 semester (12.5 years) in private schooling. Explain to me how that has anything to do with state institutions.

Anyway, if you want to get me on that subject, I will tear state institutions to shreds. I don't believe in state funded education because it's inefficient. I think we need to make education privately funded and run by business, not by government, and the result will be a more efficient, more productive system where less money is wasted and people pay for what they are actually getting, rather than paying the government, which in turn pays the schools, in the process losing a ton of money for everyone involved, except the greedy bureucrats.

There are VERY few instances indeed where anything you learn in a class room cannot be learned more effectively, if you have any decent IQ, at home instead. Now there are cases where class discussions add immeasurably to your learning, but that all depends whether said discussions are interesting to you or useful in what you want to know and discuss.

For a few of my classes, that has been the case, but it's so infrequent that I would easily sacrifice the contact with other people for the ease of getting through material quicker on my own. I could learn everything useful in college in about 9 months, just one single school year. I'd sit down with the books, read them myself, do whatever additional research I wanted, write my own papers that wouldn't receive obnoxious grades that are unwanted anyway, and I might actually be able to go through the material WITHOUT having to repeat everything.

Now there is a huge difference between studying English, philosophy, or business and studying engineering. You need to be here at college, with the equipment and with the teachers, if you are studying science of engineering. It's just as simple as that. But for a lot of other interests, you are better studying yourself. My own film studies are far more efficient than they would be if put into a class. I know what to do, where to look, what to read, and what to see, and in what order, without needing a class to tell me how to do it.

It comes down to a harsh fact that is unlikely to please the vast majority of people, more likely to make them think this is an "elitist comment" -- some people are capable of being self-sufficient, self-motivated, and driven by inner desire, others are simply not mentally strong people, not going to succeed in life anyway, and they need the push that teachers give to go anywhere.

My friends all fall into the group of people who are self-motivated and would be successful individuals with or without formal education. The vast majority of people I know, however, are screw-offs and consider "having fun" the ultimate goal of college. They lack discipline, they lack motivation, and frankly they stand almost no chance, with their current attitudes and habits, of ever being successful at anything except the most menial labor and boring jobs.

You can just look around you and see that "the vast majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation," as Thoreau says.

Philosophical ideas, political ideas, and social criticism are rarely going to make everyone all rosy and happy to hear. When I say that most people are going to die without being remembered by society or by history, it's not a harsh comment or a mean-spirited statement, merely a fact. It is also a fact that should help people who want to avoid such a fate take the initiative and seize control of their own destinies. As the commercial says, "In the road of life, there are passengers and there are drivers. Drivers wanted." A more famous quote says, "If you have discipline you can conquer the world. If you don't have discipline the world will conquer you."

I'm telling you that anyone with a true passion for knowledge, learning, and greater goals besides simple pleasures (drinking, sex, drugs, partying, etc.) does NOT need school to be successful. That statement is not even up for debate. People have proved this time and again, all kinds of influential people who had little formal education and still have made a huge difference because of their character and will alone.

There is nothing necessarily "wrong" with needing teachers to push you along, but it does mean you are not a self-starter, you are not motivated by any of your own goals, and perhaps it is time to do a little soul searching and find what really does drive you (I say that to people who are as I described above; you are clearly, clearly the self-starter I am talking about and don't fit into that group).

Now for filmmaking, of course you can learn it all from books and reading, but I think film school is about 1,000 times more effective. You learn by doing, not by reading about it, and that is why I previously said that engineering does require formal schooling really. For philosophy, OF COURSE you don't need formal schooling!!! Most of the greatest philosophers thought up their ideas through contemplation and discussion with friends or colleagues, not through taking classes. It's just an absurd idea.

This is why libraries exist, people. lol. The problem is you don't get a degree for reading in a library, which is a major problem because it means everyone has to go to a lousy college and waste countless hours on idiotic classes and idiotic work just to get a piece of paper that says what that person already knew -- that they are educated well. It's crap. You should be able to simply take a test and get a degree proving you have sufficient knowledge of a specific subject area. How you get that knowledge should be up to you.

[CMJ]

Jonathan, whether you meant to or not the post that angered me said : public institututions were "lame" and "appealed to the lowest common demoniator". You basically trashed public schools. That does not sit well with me at all.

By saying you're smarter than 99% of your classmates, and that a Private institutuion would be more to your "standards", you are in a sense making fun of anyone who went to public school. I was quite a student in highschool, and I got accepted all over the place. I don't regret for a second attending NT, a public institutuion. Could I have made it in a private school? I'm sure I could've handled it. At the University level I've found Private and Public institutuons similar honestly. I knew many people with degree's from private schools that work for the poor old saps from public schools. Poor dumb average Joe's eh? :p

Your last post is more reasonable though. If you don't think any school is worthwhile if someone is motivated enough, you are in a sense correct(though I don't completely agree). I can buy into that reasoning more than the the venom you showered public schools with originally.

[Diego Van Derveld]

Its easy to say such things while majoring in Film.

[Admiral Lebron]

In the last two weeks I have been to school for a day and a half. Booyeah.